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Death toll in Spanish floods rises to six

By RFI
Europe JOSE JORDAN  AFP
SEP 15, 2019 LISTEN
JOSE JORDAN / AFP

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has visited the country's flood-stricken south-eastern regions as the death toll rose to six and train and air services were disrupted for a third day.

Some of the heaviest daily rainfall on record has inundated the region since Wednesday, provoking chaos on the roads, cutting public transport and causing rivers to burst their banks.

Flash floods swept away cars and swamped homes and fields in the regions of Valencia, Murcia and eastern Andalusia.

The latest fatality was a middle-aged man whose body was found by police in a field at a hamlet near the city of Orihuela in Valencia.

Five people died in separate incidents over the previous two days.

After observing the damage from a helicopter flying over the city of Orihuela in the region of Valencia, Sanchez visited a command centre for emergency operations.

Later he offered his condolences to the families of the dead and said the government would do everything it could to help the survivors.

Thousands of police, fire-fighters and soldiers have been deployed in a rescue operation.

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